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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27014230">(too shy to) say it</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmagnolias/pseuds/pinkmagnolias'>pinkmagnolias</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, me: this will be a small fic yes? a few hundred words?, roman and patton; much too gay for that: no ♡, they're super soft your honor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:21:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,291</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27014230</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmagnolias/pseuds/pinkmagnolias</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Patton has something to tell Roman.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>(too shy to) say it</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>warnings! they're all pretty mild but just in case: a little bit of repression, roman stays out in the sun longer than he should, and like one line of self deprecation</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Patton thinks he’s maybe being disproportionately nervous about this. It’s not like Roman’s going to be upset with him or anything! They’ve talked about this before, and Ro’s said he doesn’t have to say it if he doesn’t want to, and he wasn’t ready to say it then but he is now, and he <em> knows </em> Roman will react positively so he <em> shouldn’t </em> be nervous but maybe that’s why? ‘Cause he can picture it now: he tells him, and Roman’s face lights up and he starts peppering Patton’s face with kisses, and that always makes him giggle, which would be great! But at the same time, he feels like if Roman reacts at <em> all </em> it’ll be too big a deal made.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Patton scrunches up his face. This is just stressing him out. He mentally shoves the issue aside—not like he’s going to anything about it right now, so he might as well ignore it—and pulls out his phone to scroll social media. Or, the plan was to scroll social media, but the screen wakes up to show him a rash of texts from Roman, so of course he opens those first.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> hello my darling!<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> I want you to know that I’m very excited to come over later!<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> and that I may or may not have brought you a surprise<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> and also come early<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> ik you leave your phone on silent though so do not fear!!<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> I’ll be waiting in the park for you to see this!<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> didn’t want to show up completely unannounced y’know?<br/><b>(ro)man of my dreams:</b> and this way if you’re not ready you can ignore me for a while longer!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Roman, you goof, </em>Patton thinks, hurrying to the door and throwing it open. The park’s down the road from his house, and the only reason he doesn’t run down the sidewalk to Roman is because he doesn’t want to be out of breath when he gets there. (The sight of Roman already leaves him breathless, anyway.) He does speedwalk, though.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Roman!” he calls as soon as he spots him. Ro’s head pops up and Patton <em> maybe </em> puts on a burst of speed so he can slide onto the bench next to him that much quicker. “You should’ve called me or something! How long did you wait out here?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Oh, just an hour or so? And I need the sun anyways,” Roman tries.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“An <em> hour</em>! Why didn’t you call me? Or come knock on my door, I wouldn’t have minded. Oh! Oh, oh, oh, you probably haven’t had anything to drink, have you? And you’ve been out in the hot sun for an <em> hour</em>, oh my goodness, you are coming home with me <em> immediately</em>, mister.” Patton jumps up and heaves Roman up beside him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Patton—” Roman says. Patton is <em> almost </em> too busy pulling him down the street to listen, but the completely smitten part of him latches on to the sound of Roman’s voice. “Patton, don’t you want to know what the surprise is?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I can know what the surprise is when <em> you </em> are in an air-conditioned house with a glass of juice to help you cool off and hydrate,” Patton says firmly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Roman sighs, though Patton can tell it’s a fond one, and lets himself be dragged into Patton’s house and taken care of.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Now,” Patton says once Roman’s situated and he can’t think of anything else to offer or do for him. “I’m <em> very </em> glad you’re here and I would <em> love </em> to see what the surprise you’ve got for me is.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Roman grins and gestures to the counter, where sits a picnic basket that Patton vaguely remembers setting there in his bustle to make sure Roman hadn’t given himself sunstroke. Patton beams and opens the lid.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“<em>Roman</em>!” he gasps, pulling out a pair of earrings. “You shouldn’t have!” They’re dangly, maybe the length from a knuckle to the rest of his hand. It’s just a straight line of silver with a little blue jewel at the bottom, but they’re <em> gorgeous </em> and Patton hardly manages to pull his gaze over to Roman, who’s grinning at him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“They’re sapphires,” he tells him. “They symbolize kindness, I think? And blue’s your favorite color, so I wanted to get them for you.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Roman!” Patton repeats, bouncing over to hug him. “They’re amazing! Thank you so much!” <em> I love you </em> rises on his tongue, and he chokes on it before he realizes this would’ve been a good opportunity to just <em> say it</em>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>And now Roman’s looking at him funny. Darn it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You alright, Pat?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Um,” he says, “yeah.” He smiles at him, much weaker than the beam he’d been displaying a moment before, and ducks his head. Hopefully it looks like he did that because he’s taking out the little hoops he’d put in earlier, and not to cover up the fact that he’s kind of completely ruined the mood.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Focus, </em> he tells himself. <em> New earrings that are super pretty that Roman bought out of the blue for you because he thought you’d like them. </em> By the time the earrings are fastened, he’s smiling again and he thinks he can successfully pretend that nothing happened.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Except apparently Roman doesn’t want to pretend nothing happened, because when Patton looks back up at him he cups his face in one hand and asks gently, “What’s wrong?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Nothing!” Roman looks disbelieving, so he continues, “It’s nothing, seriously, I’m just being dumb—”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey, now,” Roman cuts in. “I’ll have you know that that is my lovely boyfriend you’re slandering, and I will not stand for it!” Patton smiles a little and squishes his face against Roman’s hand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Sorry.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Nothing to apologize for, love,” Roman assures him. “But I would like to know what’s got you talking bad about yourself?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I just… wanted to say something. But I’m nervous, even though I know you won’t be upset or anything.” Patton bites his lip and looks away as much as he can.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What is it?” Roman asks. Patton pouts at him, and he breaks into a grin and boops his nose. “Only teasing, darling. Take your time. If you’re not ready to talk about it now we can always come back to it when you are.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Um,” Patton says. “Do you remember a while ago when you said you loved me? And you said if I wasn’t ready to say it back it was perfectly alright, you just wanted to let me know, and if I ever felt the same way we could come back to it then?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah.” Patton nods, hoping that’s enough for Roman to connect the dots. And it is; Patton can tell the moment he understands, face smoothing from confusion into joy as he gapes excitedly at Patton.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Really?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Yeah!” Patton says, and maybe it’s that Roman’s mood is contagious, or maybe it’s the weight of this secret finally falling off, but he finds himself beaming at Roman and barely containing his giggles. “I love you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you too!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!” Patton repeats, because he <em> can </em> and seeing Roman’s face somehow light up even brighter is filling him with fizzy happiness.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you!” Patton drags Roman into a kiss, trying to pour all of his love and affection and elation into it. He pulls back, face maybe an inch away from Roman’s, to murmur, “I love you,” with as much feeling as he can.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I love you,” Roman echoes, and Patton <em> glows </em> before pulling him into another kiss.</p>
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